UPDATE: May 26, 2020, 11 a.m. — Planet of the Humans was removed from YouTube on May 23 after English environmental photographer Toby Smith filed a copyright infringement complaint, saying that director Jeff Gibbs used a few seconds of his footage in the film without getting permission to do so.
ORIGINAL STORY:
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, American filmmaker Michael Moore has unexpectedly released the Planet of the Humans (2019) documentary for free.
For 30 days, the eye-opening, Moore-produced and Jeff Gibbs-directed climate change film will be available for viewers to watch in its entirety on YouTube to promote global environmental protection.
Planet of the Humans serves as Gibbs’ directorial debut. He is known best as a longtime collaborator of Moore’s. He worked as a co-producer on Bowling For Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) among other features.
Though Moore, 65, is branding the gripping documentary as a “brand new feature film,” it premiered last July at the Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan.
Moore claims that the film shows we’ve been “led astray” when it comes to climate change, but that we are capable of changing course.
“This movie takes no prisoners and exposes the truth about how we’ve been led astray in the fight to save the planet, to the point where if we don’t reverse course right now, events like the current pandemic will become numerous, devastating and insurmountable,” Moore said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone.
“We have ignored the warnings and instead all sorts of so-called leaders have steered us away from the real solutions that might save us.
“The feel-good experience of this movie is that we actually have the smarts and the will to not let this happen — but only if we immediately launch a new environmental uprising.”
During an interview with Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, Moore reiterated that Planet of the Humans is a “siren call for all of us to get involved” in saving the environment in a proper manner.
“We didn’t want to wait to put it in theatres,” he said. “We want people to watch it now,” he said, stressing what he believes to be the importance of the message.
Planet of the Humans features special guest cameos from former U.S. vice-president and environmentalist Al Gore, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Austrian-American action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others.
Additionally, the soundtrack includes the eerie sounds of Radiohead and classic prog-rock bands like King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
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Planet of the Humans is now available, in its entirety, on YouTube.